Netflix's Homecomingwas everything we were hoping it would be, and then some. The documentary, centered on the behind-the-scenes of Beyoncé's iconic Coachella 2018 performance, was a glorious two-hour seventeen-minute work of art that has rendered viewers all over the world speechless. But get excited, because there's more!

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According to an exclusive report from Variety, Mrs. Carter's deal with the online streaming platform was worth a whopping $60 million, and you better believe they're milking that deal. So they aren't just making this one project, not two, but three projects with Queen Bey. And although Netflix and Beyoncé's team have not confirmed, fans are already freaking out. (And so are we!)

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beyonce signed w netflix for three projects with homecoming being the first, meaning we have two more... i could cry pic.twitter.com/LsR2Af7vIE

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According to Vulture, HBO was also interested in the project, having had a long relationship with Knowles-Carter after they aired her 2016 "Lemonade" film, 2014's "On the Run Tour" concert special with husband Jay-Z, and the 2013 doc "Life Is But a Dream." But, apparently, the cable network backed out when Netflix came in with a higher offer.

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No word has been given regarding the nature of the two forthcoming projects, but we're hoping maybe a mini-series? A full on Netflix Originals show? Maybe even a movie? After all, it's been a while since we've seen Bey show off her acting chops. Whatever the two new Netflix x Beyoncé collaborations are, we're sure they're going to be nothing short of amazing. Because Beyoncé.

If you want to live it up like one of New York's OG muses, you should know that Edie Sedgwick's apartment is on the market. The late model and actress, and artist Andy Warhol's muse, used to live in the Upper East Side in an over-1,000-square-foot luxurious one-bedroom, and it's been reported to be up for grabs since Wednesday.

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Sedgwick lived in the apartment in the '60s, and it is now worth a whopping $1.2 million. The stunningly well-lit space is located specifically on the third floor of a Lenox Hill co-op building on 16 E. 63rd Street, New York. It's a beautiful four-story Beaux-Arts mansion built in 1876, which has also been known to house other legendary celebrities such as late '30s actress and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor, and her mother.

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The unit also has 14-foot ceilings, and not one but two wood-burning fireplaces.

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According to Architectural Digest, the star survived a fire in the unit back in October 1966. The fire was reportedly set when she fell asleep with a lit cigarette in her mouth. The apartment was, of course, restored following the incident, and still has its original moldings, a dressing area, and a storage room.

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After the tragedy that burned one of Sedgwick's legs, an arm, and her back, she later moved to Hotel Chelsea.

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So, if you have an extra $1.2 million lying around, you can contact the Avati Team of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties.

It's week two of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, and the acts made sure to make the most out of their final stage appearances. Artist Janelle Monaé gave her week two performance her all, and made sure to send out important messages to the audience and to the universe.

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Before her last song, she raised her finger up in the air before making her point, and said, "Another thing! Shout out to Beyoncé." And, of course, this made the crowd cheer. "She opened up so many doors for women like me," she explained. She added, "Another thing! Impeach Trump." This message was greeted with another round of cheers and applause.

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Other iconic moments from the second round of first day performers include Donald Glover a.k.a. Childish Gambino's loosening up on the "no phones" rule and taking selfies with his fans after the show, the Smith family (Jaden, Willow, and their dad Will) sharing the stage, and of course BLACKPINK's Rosé dabbing.

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Childish Gambino’s #Coachella Weekend 2 set is a complete 180 from the Weekend 1 performance.

He loosened up on the “put your phone away” rule and took selfies with the fans instead of sharing a ‘smoke.’ pic.twitter.com/XRzFGPrBzW

It's 4/20, and Brooklyn-based trans rapper Uncle Meg's got the perfect video you can ride out your high with. His single "Verde" is a bop with a danceable beat, and the video is a seriously trippy journey. From rollerblading martians to a slimy green feast, its all just about random-ass fun.

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The single is one of the tracks featured on Uncle Meg a.k.a. Max Skaff's latest EP, Butterfly, which talks about the first two years of his transition from female to male. "'Verde' is the most obnoxious track on the Butterfly EP," the rapper said in a statement. "It is an ode to immaturity and fun. Think High School." That explains all the Stranger Things-esque biking around the neighborhood, tree swinging, and The Simpsons nuclear imagery.

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"As I've gone through my transition, I've often said that at 28 years old I feel more like a child than when I was 23. It makes sense to me as my 'boyhood' was cut short at age 7," explained Skaff. "Verde is about letting loose and being silly stupid. I also wanted to take ownership of the word 'tranny' and take it back to empower myself. Like, yeah, I am Transgender, so what?"

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Let loose, chill out on your couch, and do as Uncle Meg raps and live it up in Mars on 4/20 with the "Verde" video and its psychedelic filters and funky dancing.

Ahead of her second Coachella performance, Ariana Grande took to Twitter to open up about how she's feeling depleted.

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Despite making a splash as the youngest-ever Coachella headliner, Grande said that she doesn't "have anything" to give her fans. After a fan wondered why Grande wasn't as active online as she usually is, Grande responded by writing, "I just feel empty and i wanna have more to say / better energy to give to u and rn i don't have anything. love u."

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i just feel empty and i wanna have more to say / better energy to give to u and rn i don’t have anything. love u. ????

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Grande was also tweeting about her mental state for a while, but it appears as if she has deleted those. According to E! News, Grande responded to a fan who wrote, "Music is your therapy and I love seeing it heal you" with some intense honesty.

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"Making it is healing," Grande reportedly wrote. "Performing it is like reliving it all over again and it is hell." In another tweet, Grande also said she doesn't think touring is good for her, before adding, "Honestly, it's been v hard. I have sm on my mind and it's so heavy and no energy to process or work thru any of it but i'm trying hard." This all comes just a week after she shared a "terrifying" scan of her brain that showed the effects of her PTSD.

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Let's hope she gets some well-deserved rest and relaxation time before Sunday.

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Though Olivia Jade hasn't made any public appearances since the scandal broke, TMZreports that she was at a party in Studio City, CA at YouTuber David Dobrik's house. And though she apparently asked everyone for the party to be a cellphone-free zone, given that she was in a room full of YouTubers, someone obviously recorded themselves.

Born in Cúcuta, Colombia and raised in South Florida, Gabriel Perez Silva (@_youngshot) didn't always plan on being a professional photographer. If it wasn't for a shoulder injury, his career trajectory could've been quite different.

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The 22-year-old was a D1 swimmer in college, and photography was merely a side interest. "I was always playing with cameras growing up, but I was busy being the athlete I was expected to be for anyone to notice and push me artistically," he says. "It wasn't until one of my old photographs of a man in the rice paddies of Bali got chosen for an exhibit back in 2015. It re-sparked something and getting major surgery as a D1 swimmer and almost getting kicked out of school was the push I needed to succeed."

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Since then, the photographer who otherwise keeps a low profile has quietly risen as one of the brightest names in photography today, capturing the likes of Issa Rae, Bella Hadid, and Tommy Dorfman, among others. Last year, he took over Winnie Harlow's Instagram account for the MET gala, which is also when he first caught the model's attention.

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Taking their collaboration one step further this year, Silva helped recreate MAC's iconic VIVIA GLAM campaign with the Harlow as the star. The original from 1994 that featured RuPaul became instrumental in its efforts to spread awareness about the HIV epidemic.

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Speaking to how he landed the big break, Silva says: "Winnie and I have worked closely on a number of things starting with last year's Met Gala, but this was very unexpected and definitely a special shoot for us, as well as the whole team. Winnie and hairstylist Jay Brumant first came to me with the idea. I was all for it and excited to recreate such an iconic and important campaign at the age of 21. We tried to keep it as close as possible to the original one."

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Silva says his aesthetic is rooted in nostalgia and filled with emotion: "My work is greatly inspired by a lot of my experiences in life, a lot of negative emotions I've held inside but a lot of positive ones as well. My art allows me to show you another side of me, it lets you interpret it how you may; it shows you an intimate moment between the subject and I. I'm much more interested in creating a piece of art versus simply a nice photograph."

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Citing the likes of Norman Parkinson and Davide Sorrenti as his inspiration, Silva adds that he is mainly moved by works that posses a certain personality: "[Parkinson] really changed the game and was doing things no one else was at the time. A lot of his photographs are honestly my favorites. I love Sorrenti because he was always this young, weird, cool artist who remained true to himself but still different than everyone else in the industry."

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Despite his celebrity affiliations, an integral part of Silva's photography has been raising awareness about scoliosis, a condition that he has struggled with since childhood. To further his work, he hosted a solo show last year, where the proceeds went to the Scoliosis Foundation in Ghana. This year, the photographer has been invited as a special guest to the country to give a speech on the National Scoliosis Day in Accra.

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"It will be a great continuation of my work with them to raise funding and Scoliosis Awareness, as started off with the showcase I threw," he says." I was invited to stay with the Community Chief at the palace. I'll be bringing my cameras and doing a lot of documenting as well."

Popularity is relative, and especially in the digital age. You could have hundreds of thousands of followers online, but be completely unknown in the streets — massively famous on Instagram, YouTube or Twitter, but lack any kind of real, authentic cool in person. For our new series, Coolest Person in the Room, New York-based photographer Megan Walschlager pinpoints all the people whose energy is contagious regardless of their following count or celebrity. Meet Marta Mae): the bicoastal, mononymous multi-hyphenate behind Hot Girls Eating Pizza, Nice Paper, a new cannabinoid skin care line and, like, 1,000 other things.

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Tell us about your day jobs — everything on your plate — you have so many projects:

This question is always really hard for me because I feel like I do seven different things but top level; I'm co-founder of Nice Paper, which is an education platform with beautiful original content to educate, normalize and de-stigmatize cannabis and hemp. We're also launching a cannabinoid-based skin care line called Dieu in early 2020 so that is starting to take up a lot of my time. I also have Hot Girls Eating Pizza, which is this Instagram project slash platform I started 5 years ago when my mom died. I didn't want to do traditional grief therapy so I made my own. I think it worked, I met so many of my close friends who have lost parents and when I started the account, I didn't know anyone who could relate. I asked people I admired to get pizza with me, and it really took on a life of its own. I have agency representation for it now and we're doing bigger beauty and fashion things. It's really fun, but it's also pretty much how I met my entire network in LA and NYC. It's insane. I never meant for any of it to happen, I don't even really like eating pizza that much anymore. I also consult a little on the side, but don't we all do a little of that?

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How long has Nice Paper officially been live?

We officially launched in June, so not super long — like 9 months or so. It's been really fun and we just hit 10k followers on Instagram. It feels like a big accomplishment because all of our content is original. I think that is pretty rare these days, especially in cannabis. I wanted to populate other people's moodboards. It's finally happening.

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How did you start your own skincare line? I feel like that takes a lot of science background knowledge.

Yeah, it really does. Especially because we want to create a clinical skincare brand that actually works. My business partner is incredible and I am so lucky; she's worked at Cosmopolitan and Hearst for a long time before going to Snapchat, and we're both just obsessed with beauty and skincare. She writes all of our articles and newsletters for Nice Paper, and I'm not exaggerating when I say she has spent at least a couple hundred hours reading every white paper available on cannabis and hemp. We have scientists and doctors on call and involved in Dieu. We actually created our own beauty awards for Nice Paper to evaluate cannabis products in the beauty space and we found out that most products in the CBD beauty space do not actually have CBD in them.

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What do you mean?!

It's all hemp seed oil! A lot of it, anyway. Especially for the bigger brands you see in Sephora.

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They just put a weed leaf on the packaging?

Yes, they just use that word (cannabis sativa oil) as a marketing tactic. It's hemp seed oil. You can go to Whole Foods and get a bottle of hemp seed oil for like $8 or less. We really saw a big opportunity for exploring what cannabinoids can actually do for skin. It also reaffirms the importance of education, so we push a lot of well-researched skincare-related content on Nice Paper.

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What drew you to the cannabis industry?

I've been a cannabis enthusiast since high school — I was 14 or 15 years old when I started smoking a lot. My first job was at the mall at a kid's store and the manager and I would hotbox her car after closing. I was never your stereotypical stoner. For some reason, I always felt judged for being more into weed than alcohol so I never felt good about myself when I engaged with cannabis outside. It was confusing. In Clueless, Cher looks so cute smoking that joint at the house party in the valley. That's how I always saw myself, but stoner culture was not that.

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Where are you from?

New Jersey. But I went to school in New York and I got drug tested at my first two jobs, and looking back I think that it's insane we got drug tested for cannabis. So, I was always kind of upset that I had to hide that about myself. Smoking weed isn't a big part of my personality, but it is a part of who I am.

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I started to come to LA pretty often for my last day job and I helped out with a panel for Dosist when they were called Hmbldt at the Standard two years ago, and that got me into doing cannabis events and affiliated things. I started to meet a lot of people from fashion making the switch to cannabis. My partner and I — I actually met her through Hot Girls Eating Pizza 3 years ago — reconnected at a birthday dinner and we both decided we should do this together and that's when we decided to start working on Nice Paper.

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So it's purely educational, you don't sell products?

We don't sell products on our website yet, but we do a lot of partnerships and collaborations. We have topicals with our friends' yoga studio Y7 — we did a CBD bath soak and a CBD muscle salve. We also have CBD pre-rolls with this incredible brand called Soul Addict. They're launching nationally on Eaze Wellness soon, which is a great place to buy well-vetted CBD products. We're working on some private-label CBD beauty products with a really big retailer coming out this summer which I'm super excited about. We definitely want to be a liaison between the fashion and beauty space and weed. Kind of like an Into the Gloss, if you will.

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Obviously weed is not legal in New York, so are you involved with lobbying for legalization? Is it something that's very close to happening or do we still have a ways to go?

It's coming really soon. Last month, the City Council passed resolutions that call for all misdemeanor marijuana convictions to be expunged and for the state to pass legislation that fully legalizes, regulates and taxes the drug. My partner lobbied in Albany with a lot of our colleagues last month, it was for equitable cannabis legislation. We have to make sure the legal adult-use cannabis industry benefits and protects those most harmed by the war on drugs.

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How do you navigate working in an industry that is historically inequitable to POC?

Mindfully and with intention. We knew when we ideated Nice Paper that we had a responsibility. We have friends in the space doing the most important work like CannaClusive. They ensure brands are not only conscious of representation and diversity among minority cannabis consumers but also actionable in the fight for legalization and making the industry equitable. We are having a secret 4/20 event with them and some of our other favorite partners.

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You do throw a lot of parties — how did you get into that?

Honestly, really randomly. I'm a really social person by nature and I've always had a lot of friends. In high school I loved throwing a themed party and even in college too, the cops would always come.

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And then Hot Girls Eating Pizza gave me this natural platform to start throwing pizza parties. It was actually at Baby's All Right, when they first opened, that they were like, "Hey Marta, why don't you start doing your pizza parties here?" and then it quickly evolved to doing them at hotels and Elvis' Guesthouse. I started to host them in Miami and LA, brands wanted to leverage my network and they started to get bigger. I've done all kinds of pizza parties, but I really feel like no one was owning the pizza party space, so I was like, "Okay! I will!"

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In general, I'm not a heavy drinker and I guess since I'm getting a little older, I'm partying less than I ever have been, but I still really like hosting a lot and I really, really, really love bringing people together.

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"I really, really, really love bringing people together."

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I really admire that you have a lot of things going on and don't have a linear trajectory, per se, because I've always felt that way about my own career goals — like they don't all necessarily line up or make sense together.

Thank you so much. Totally. It used to trip me out until I really embraced it. I went to FIT and I studied textiles, so I worked in fashion for 6 years and I was so miserable jumping from job to job. I would get a promotion or move laterally and I would never be happy. It was the same thing at every company. And I never really saw my trajectory with fashion in that way. I knew I was meant for a non-traditional job path. I guess Hot Girls gave me a taste of what it would be like to work for myself.

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I also had a nail art line carried at Nasty Gal back in the day, during Nasty Gal's prime. It was named after my mom, called Trixxie, which was her nickname. I was super into nail art before it was so accessible so I designed and produced these water-slide nail decals. I made them for brands like Glossier and Nike and it was a really little thing I did on the side, but it was helping me pay my rent and funding other stuff that I wanted to do. I think I just always had that mentality — of doing stuff on the side to help me fund projects I really wanted to do while I had a boring desk job.

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Any time a friend comes to me when they have an idea I tell them, "Well, anyone can do that, so you should do it right now." An idea is just a thought until you actually execute it, so I'm really big on working out your ideas and trying a million things. That means I have about 28 Instagram accounts and 13 passion projects, but it's the best.

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Do you have a getting ready routine?

Yeah! When it comes to makeup, I hate wearing it. I try to get away with wearing tinted moisturizer and eyebrow gel. If I have a social function, I'll do a glitter eye. I had a big winged eyeliner phase, but it was so much work. and I recently got my lashes lifted and tinted by Jas Imani so I don't have to wear mascara. Skincare is a different story. I have a set of products that I keep in LA and in New York. I wish I had more of a routine, but traveling makes it hard. I do so many masks, moisturize, dermaroll, microcurrent — I try to do all the things, but my routine is somewhere between 5-12 steps depending on where I am.

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What do you think are the coolest places in NY and LA?

In NYC, my friends recently opened Short Stories on Bowery. It's such a good spot, and I feel like my friends are always there. My friends are also obsessed with Joyface right now. In LA, I really like places like Cabo Cantina — just your typical no-one-ever-goes-there spot, but they have amazing margaritas. Or maybe they don't and I just like the Sunset Strip. I also love old school places like Apple Pan and Dan Tana's, places that don't have an Instagram. There's so many of those in LA.

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I love a no ambiance restaurant.

Right, like there's no vibe, so that almost makes it a vibe. But I really love a themed restaurant, so any time there's one of those — either chain or not — I'm down to go there. When I'm traveling, I'm always looking for a theme restaurant. Like the kitschy-ist thing that looks like the Madonna Inn threw up in your face. Or anything that looks like a Rainforest Café spinoff — sign me up.

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Best pizza in NYC and LA?

Williamsburg Pizza and Best Pizza. They've been my neighborhood faves for years, and now I'm lucky enough to call them friends. I feel like I'm in a relationship with Williamsburg Pizza because we work together so much. In LA, good pizza is tough. I love Cecconi's in West Hollywood.

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What are some of the coolest cannabis products out now?

My favorite question! Right now, I am obsessed with Level Protabs. They have a sativa blend for creativity that I take when I work. Same with Kinslips, which you dissolve under your tongue. I love the Cloud Buster blend. I'm always on the hunt for innovative cannabis products for productivity. Sunday Goods just launched gorgeous new vapes, Delight is such a happy high. Besito is another amazing vape my friend just launched.

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What is your favorite song to hear when you're out?

Fleetwood Mac will put me in a good mood no matter what. But I am pretty beholden to trash pop on Spotify.

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Is that an actual thing?

[Laughs] No, I listen to great pop. I make playlists called "thot bops" but I'm always scared to share them.

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What is next for you?

We'll continue doing more product partnerships for Nice Paper. We raised a little capital for Dieu and we're moving full-speed ahead on that. I'm working on a cool thing with a large pizza chain for Hot Girls Eating Pizza so that will be really fun.

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But, yeah — I don't know! I say this every year, but this is the year of collaboration. I feel like all my friends are coming up and into their own more than ever— like really coming up right now. I love that we're always able to work together and do things together. Relationships are my number one, and basically why I split my time between two cities, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Fox commentator Laura Ingraham mocked Nipsey Hussle, the LA rapper who was recently murdered, in a segment on her show The Ingraham Angle. Naturally, the disparaging segment immediately drew scrutiny online and from the rapper's friends and collaborators. Justin Bieber isn't typically one to weigh in on politics, but he apparently felt Ingraham's words were beyond the pale.

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Fox commentators aren't big fans of rap in general, but they really can't stand when rappers criticize Donald Trump. Ingraham began the segment, according to CNN, by sarcastically referring to the late Hussle as "this dear artist" and played a portion of his and YG's 2016 "FDT," which includes the eponymous lyric, "Fuck Donald Trump."

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Meek Mill, Ty Dolla Sign, Machine Gun Kelly, Blake Kelly and others cheered him on in the comments, although some of his conservative fans were not pleased. "You speak of God and Jesus yet you pull this?" one wrote, while another commented, "I'm sad for anyone's death. Rest in peace Nipsey. I'm also sad for this country and the amount of disrespect for our president."

Where would we be without Pornhub? The internet's favorite adult entertainment platform is once more using its web traffic numbers for good, launching a campaign to preserve dwindling bee populations called "Beesexual."

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More than 700 North American bee species are reportedly headed towards extinction, and Pornhub has commissioned tongue-in-cheek "bee porn" videos to help educate its 100 million daily users about this issue. To maintain interest, the videos are narrated by popular adult entertainers. Statistically speaking, there's likely someone out there with this highly specific kink.

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The channel will also donate to bee-saving organizations like Operation Honey Bee and The Center For Honey Bee Research. As a press release notes, this is by no means Pornhub's first charitable cause — the company has fundraised to save whale populations (sperm jokes were made), donated to human sexuality research projects, and launched a free leaf removal service ("Pornhub Blows").

New Music Friday always promises a plethora of that good-good new-new from some of your favorite artists, maybe some long-awaited, maybe some tired, through, and delayed, and maybe some songs by a treasure trove of #whos you've never heard of before. We know. It's overwhelming! Thank the heavens PAPER is here help sift through the goodness, the garbage, and the noise, and bring you the best every Friday. We gotchu, sis. Let's bop to it!

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Lolo Zoua? is a global artist whose presence is bound to felt worldwide. The Paris-born, Bay Area-raised, and Brooklyn-dwelling singer-songwriter is of French-Algerian descent, and her multicultural background is accordingly reflected in her music. Her debut album High Highs and Low Lows is out today, and its 12 tracks are a delicious mix of roiling trap and R&B grooves, and sumptuous, radio-friendly melodies. This provides a rich palette for Zoua?'s stories to come to life. On "Moi," she fully gets into character, flitting between catch-me-if-you-can seductress ( "I ride solo/ three passport photos") and high-class starlet ("My heart is on the road"). The results are intoxicating, as she sings in French and English over mixed tempos and chopped-and-screwed production. Zoua? understands the art of keeping audiences (and would-be suitors) on the edge of their seats, which is why when "Moi" is over in three minutes, repeating it and allowing it all to unravel again feels like the only viable option.

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Lizzo's lead-up to her fifth studio album and major-label debut, Cuz I Love You, has been nothing short of rapturous. It's exciting to watch the growth of an artist who has been committed to shattering all kinds of paradigms — from what female pop stars are expected to look, act, and sound like to her tireless efforts to uplift people like her. The album is finally out and it's worth its weight in gold. "Like a Girl" is an immediate standout precisely because it a.) effectively reasserts Lizzo for the unapologetically free icon she is and b.) encourages femmes the world over to fully claim their preordained glory. Lizzo even wails like she means it, and it's powerful. When she visited PAPER's offices to play this song recently, she spoke about how important it is to recognize and celebrate femme power, no matter what form it comes in, because if you're paying attention, it's something all people have, regardless of gender identity. "Like a Girl," as only Lizzo can, playfully and poignantly imagines a future in which that phrase ceases to become an insult, and instead becomes a chant for equality, a motivator of nations to embrace divine feminine energy within. I'm all in my feelings with this one, most of all because I feel seen. Here's hoping you feel the same.

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Potently channeling his heartache into a touching ode to lovers past is BROCKHAMPTON's, Kevin Abstract, who just released his Ghettobaby EP, the second installment of his ongoing ARIZONA baby project. (The third and final installment will arrive next week and will complete the release rollout.) Everyone will be talking about the dynamic "Baby Boy." The chorus is a singsong-y affectation of a lover through dreams; in waking moments it is easier for Kevin to pretend he's unaffected: "At this point you're pretty much out of my mind," he sings. But as the verses give way to psychedelic rock explosions, his truth joyfully, painfully emerges: "I'd rather you hold me, that's what you told me."

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Carly Rae Jepsen's latest taste from her upcoming third album Dedicated is a funked-out groove about a fantastical love named "Julien." "I tried another to keep me satisfied, but all your colors are still dancing in my mind," she sings about the boy she can't forget. "I'm forever haunted by your time," she coos later. Our heroine is caught between two worlds, and it shows up best in the production: Jepsen's nostalgia for what was lies beneath a disco ball's faded glimmer, her present sense of absence captured by jarring synth squiggles. Her memory becomes our dancefloor ecstasy — a hallmark of Jepsen's greatness.

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DJ Armin Van Buuren and frequent Lady Gaga collaborator Fernando Garibay team up for "Phone Down." The glimmering track effectively highlights the pair's undeniable production prowess; Garibay's work is best heard throughout Gaga's Born This Way. A male vocalist sings passionately over this track's bubbling, throbbing synthpop about an inability to be present in his lover's absence: a highly relatable experience for this generation. Swipe right if you can relate, which should be everyone reading and listening. Then, put your phone down and dance.

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Electronic musician MNDR returns with an elegant break up ballad that calls on the distant planet of war, rage, and fire. But "Mars," though it is an immediate head-rush of swirling synths, beeps, and heavy-hitting beats — all enhanced by MNDR's distinctive voice — does not come from an angry place. She takes a slightly more detached perspective, exiting a relationship and floating through the galaxy with a tone of calm acceptance. "Interest drifts away," she sings, as if through a smokescreen. On "Mars," she's processing her own ache, while remaining protected from the emotional fallout of leaving someone behind on Earth. The gorgeous new track comes from Young Art Sound II, a project slated for a May 3 released on the TOKiMONSTA-backed label Young Art Records. Don't let this one drift away.

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Haunted songstress Morgan Saint's newest song "god bless our souls" is a minimal ballad about a dark and stormy love and affair. Saint's voice hovers just above a ghostly, black-tongued falsetto, and is the prickly needle through which contrasting threads fit. She plays musical seamstress weaving a darkened tapestry through barbed lyrics: "Am I enough?" turns sharply to "Will I end up dead?" and "Don't wanna blame you, you're an angel" builds to "but you make me want to die." While it remains unclear if Saint is seeking salvation or the end, the song's melodramatic edge and twisty melodies are what truly sell it.

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Folk-pop experimentalist Kelsey Lu's debut album Blood is here, and while we're going to take our time absorbing its immense, orchestral grandness, here is "Rebel." Over sweeping strings, Lu sings about an outsider and hustler who hasn't found home. Her voice floats elegantly just beyond reach, narrating her character's history of disappointment. "Times have never really changed/ yet they always stay the same," she sighs. The track is not only an offering from a wildly important emerging voice, but it's romanticaly poetic, as if birthed from the gods of folk music past. Kelsey Lu is their modern-day channel, and in a landscape where dozens of pop-styled artists are indistinguishable, her voice and lyrics divinely stand apart.

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Jade Bird's self-titled debut is out now, and it heralds a big-voiced talent who is not afraid of her power. Her music features no shortage of fiery rock riffs and spirited punk-pop energy, and "Uh Huh" is a great example of it. It's cranked-up loud, brutally honest and skewers stereotypes of post-breakup processing. Bird sneers at an ex who gets with someone new. Things aren't working out, she can see that; unfortunately, they can't. "Getting you where it hurts," she shrugs. Bird sings with the kind of magnetic self-assuredness of a woman who knows that her unlucky ex missed out on a good thing. It's this attitude that continues to make us believe that Bird, who is hitting the road with Father John Misty and Jason Isbell in June, will be impossible to turn away from.

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Aaron Aye continues to blaze the path toward his future with "Roots," his first bit of new music so far this year. Still building his career and swiftly-rising, the LA artist sings and raps like A-list talent you already know and love (Drake, J. Cole). In "Roots," Aye looks back at his struggles and process ("Started with a pen and the keys on a Yamaha") as a means of leaping forward into success. (See the nostalgic video here, which pays homage to the Minneapolis he grew up in.) In the process, he finds a way to encourage others pursuing their dreams: "You can get through anything, I'm the living proof/ Trust me I know it feels/What it's like to lose." Aye might be earnest, but he's impossible not to root for.

Fresh off "Boy With Luv," their Valentine's Day-worthy collab with Halsey, and "Make It Right," co-written with Ed Sheeran, BTS have their sights several American collaborations that we can all agree, must happen, whatever it takes.

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In an interview for Beats 1 on Apple Music, BTS were asked about their dream collaborators, Suga answered Drake, Jungkook suggested Billie Eilish, and Jimin shouted out Troye Sivan, according to Billboard. Great answers! Everyone gets an A.

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Let's break these down: Billie x BTS would be a freaky mess (immaculate maximalist dance-pop mixed with lo-fi emo synths and screeches) and the stans would rave. BTS and Troye Sivan would make a beautiful, lovelorn ballad. BTS and Drake, would be... a BTS song with a Drake verse. All of which, we'd like very much to hear. So, if anyone sees Billie, Troye or Drake around, please relay along the message!

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While they BTS are waiting for Billie Troye and Drake to get back to them, they really need to take Dolly Parton up on her offer for a collab. The band also explained to Beats 1 that they ended up working with Halsey on "Boy With Luv" after meeting her at the Billboard Music Awards two years ago.

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The band also explained to Beats 1 that they ended up working with Halsey on "Boy With Luv" after meeting her at the Billboard Music Awards two years ago.

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"She told us that she became a fan after she watched music videos." RM explained. "We knew Halsey from 'Closer' [with The Chainsmokers], biggest song of that year. So we met backstage and she came to Korea last year, and we met again. We talked about, like, 'We should collaborate. We should work on something.' We got this track for this album and thought that Halsey would be the best voice for this track. It happened. Boom. Here we are."

Fans of RuPaul's Drag Race are freaking out over the Lip Sync For Your Life from last night's "Snatch Game" episode of the show. Every second of the bottom queens' performance was packed to the brim with wig reveals, roundoffs, splits, and back-bends, and audiences around the world were left in total shock.

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Frontrunners Brooke Lynn Hytes and Yvie Oddly were fearful for their fates towards the end of the episode based on their performances in the challenge, a cheeky take on the classic show, "The Match Game." Hytes chose to impersonate Celine Dion for the challenge, while Oddly performed as Whoopi Goldberg. Neither performance was particularly funny, or even eye-catching, and both queens were anxious during their critiques on the runway.

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Dedicated fans were aware, however, of both queens' lip syncing capabilities. Hytes is a trained dancer, who even attended the National Ballet School of Canada, and Oddly has already wowed fans with her performances popping up online. When RuPaul herself announced that the two queens were in fact going to be lip syncing to stay on the show, fans knew the resulting battle was about to be a showdown of epic proportions.

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The queens started off sensually performing to Demi Lovato's "Sorry Not Sorry," but when the chorus of the song erupted, so did they; Oddly revealed a wig underneath her wig while doing some sort of hyper-aerobic roundoff, while Hytes twirled ferociously into a dip. These queens were ready.

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Upon a spectacular finish, complete with more dips, twists, and flips, RuPaul decided that both queens would remain in the competition based on their gravity-defying efforts. Many fans and fellow queens, jaws still agape at the performance, took to Twitter to discuss the show. Many claimed that the lip sync was one of the best ever in the show's 11-year history, and even lip-sync assassin Tatianna chimed in.

Lizzo loves us. We know it, because she told us. She named her album after us, Cuz I Love You, as casual and simple as a text from a friend. She really didn't need to spell it out for us, though, because each of its atomically joyful and furiously loving 11 tracks are the purest musical form of the stuff on the market.

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Her romance takes on many forms on Cuz I Love You. It's a girl power record like one we've never heard before, inclusive of different experiences and struggles: when girls feel bad, as well as for when they feel powerful (see: "Like A Girl," "Exactly How I Feel," "Cry Baby"). It worships Blackness: Lizzo lovingly crafted a twerking anthem dedicated to bodies like hers with, coaxing Missy Elliott out of recording retirement for the occasion (see: "Tempo," "Better In Color," the shout-outs to Lauryn Hill and Serena Williams, and her Kimmel performance of "Juice" where she got her hair braided on stage). It's a tribute to the kind of romantic ("Cuz I Love You") and physical ("Lingerie") pleasure possible on this godforsaken planet when you let yourself feel worthy and desirable, like Lizzo can help you do with her self-love commandments ("Soulmate" "Jerome" "Heaven Help Me").

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Despite the fact that these themes — girl power, Black empowerment, self-love and body positivity — are ubiquitous in pop music right now, Lizzo's songs go under the skin while other's bounce off. Maybe it's because every track on Cuz I Love You sounds horse-powered with the energy of an entire gospel choir or a cast of Drag Race contestants, but the fuel is just Lizzo's colossal personality, sense of humor and vision. She floors it throughout the album on the musical highway she built for herself (with help from Prince, Janelle Monáe, Beyoncé and a few others) one which storms into contemporary trap and hip-hop, 90's R&B, 70's electric-guitar splashed funk and honky-tonk southern soul, and wrought pop balladry at Lizzo's whimsey.

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The result is a personal and artistic triumph, that is without a doubt, going to incite people around the world to storm clubs, leave bad men and bad jobs, heal from trauma and love fiercely. It's out now.

Every year, a small gated community in Fort Lauderdale, Florida hosts a beauty pageant with just one overriding sentiment: to empower young women with disabilities.

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Traditionally, beauty pageants have been rooted in able-bodied representation (and a very specific type of body at that). But upon watching an HBO documentary about a pageant for girls with special needs in Iowa, Jessica Rodriguez, the Chief Marketing and Development Officer of Arc Broward (a non profit based in Fort Lauderdale), marched into her boss' office the next day with a plan. "I said, 'You know, these girls down here deserve the same opportunity, and it's a beautiful way to celebrate them. So we need to do something similar,'" Rodriguez said.

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Today in its seventh year, the Miss Arc Broward Pageant receives applications from all over South Florida. "We put out the applications for families in our community in the summer and it's open to any young woman with a disability between ages six and seventeen. We've had girls come from Miami to all the way to West Palm beach," Rodriguez says.

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Once the contestants are chosen (on a first come first serve basis), a number of events like ice cream socials and yacht parties are organized in order for the girls to get to know each other and build bonds. These events run for close to three months leading up to the pageant, on the Veteran's Day weekend in November.

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The events are mainly designed to promote self-esteem and confidence amongst the girls. "You wouldn't believe how many of these families that I've gotten to know through this process talk about bullying," Rodriguez said. "These girls experience really hard situations at school. So it's nice for them to just come together for these few months and just feel celebrated and safe."

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She adds that ultimately, the goal is for the girls to feel comfortable and have fun. So, in the event that a contestant is too nervous to get out on stage on the day of the pageant, they're simply encouraged to try again later. "This is not an event where we're dragging your child on stage. We'll text you and say, 'Hey, Bella didn't wanna go out this time, but we're going to encourage her for the next round.' Usually, by the second round, they get that burst of self-esteem and confidence to go out," she says. "It's truly mind-blowing and such an inspiration to watch them takeover the stage and continually conquer and overcome fears that most of us who don't even have a disability aren't able to do."

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Much like a traditional pageant, the girls go through a series of different rounds that test their talents and personalities, where contestants can pick anything they like for their chosen talent. These include standard pageant fare like singing, dancing, cheerleading and showcasing artwork or playing a musical instrument. But in the end, there are no rules. "It can be anything! If they just want to walk onstage in a fun outfit and call it their personality, we're fine with that, too," Rodriguez says.

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This is followed by an 'interview round' where the girls are posed fun questions, like their favorite color and their motivation to win the pageant. "It's really just about questions that will set these young women up for success," Rodriguez explains. "Some of [the contestants] are non-verbal. One year we had a contestant who used a talking device, so we had to prepare the questions ahead of time in order for her to press the buttons to answer them. We will work with the contestants to help make all of it a relaxed experience, of course, but you're always surprised by that one contestant who blows your mind –– literally we've had girls take the microphone from the MC to just start talking."

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Despite an overall supportive environment, going on stage can still be nerve-wracking, as is losing to the other contestants. "We really look at who they were and what really stood out over the entire pageant season. Every single contestant wins a unique award and it's given at the end and it celebrates who they are. So think of it as almost like a superlative," says Rodriguez. "These range from 'Most Likely to Be the Next Beyonce' to 'Most Likely to Be the Next President.' We do have the judges pick one 'Miss' and one 'Little Miss' depending on their age and that individual represents all of the girls in the pageant as a whole at various events in our community throughout the next year to continue pushing out this message of empowerment and inclusion."

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Still, aren't there times when the girls are disappointed when they weren't selected as the Miss Arc Broward? "Absolutely. But isn't that part of life? Don't we all need to learn how to handle disappointment?" Rodriguez says. "That to me is what we as an organization promote and do with our participants. It's like we want to help you reach your goals, we want to help you reach your full potential, but we also want to prepare you for what life is."

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An inspiring and important sentiment. But beyond all the glitter and fun surrounding the event, what remains is the actual logistics and financial onus of an event of this scale. "We tell the families first and foremost we do not want this to be a financial burden for you, so if you need help buying the clothes or anything let us know and we will make that happen," Rodriguez says.

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As a non profit, Arc Broward is responsible for not only supplying clothes and makeup, should the girls need it, but also finding sponsors and fundraising. Luckily, members of the community, from local shop owners to just empathetic patrons, have been generous in lending their support. "Our local mall gives them all money to go shopping and buy their dresses. Their whole bag is filled with nail polish and things are donated from beauty supply companies down here." There are also partnerships with pageants like Miss Florida and Miss USA.

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"It's truly mind-blowing and such an inspiration to watch them takeover the stage and continually conquer and overcome fears that most of us who don't even have a disability aren't able to do."

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"We'd love to have a brand like Essie or just someone big who'd want to donate to explore this with, because it is only 20 girls that participate every year but we have 800 people that came out last year, so it is a pretty big audience down here in South Florida," Rodriguez says.

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Rodriguez isn't ashamed of asking for help, but the motivation for any big brand to put money into remains limited, especially since there isn't much publicity surrounding the event. Despite it's surface efforts, much of mainstream beauty and fashion continue to fall behind in efforts to make inclusivity and equal representation a true priority. But perhaps an event that's entirely rooted in celebrating equality and inclusion may just be a starting point.

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"Women are constantly dealing with insecurities, constantly asking. 'Am I pretty enough?' 'Am I good enough?' It doesn't matter if you have a disability or not, we are all seeing that, feeling that and struggling with it every single day so I am proud of that fact that being a part of this event gives these young women that moment to feel like, 'I am beautiful, I am important, I have a voice, and I have a purpose in this world,'" Rodriguez says.

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"Our pageant does celebrate these girls for their overall personalities and talent but it also takes into account all the things that have spun to my mind about beauty and getting dressed up and makeup and hair and celebrates it," Rodriguez said. "It's not something that then the next day they're like, "Oh I'm not pretty anymore because I don't have a hair stylist here to do my hair.' They just remember how fun it was that moment that they had it."

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The show initially caught attention for its peculiar format and marketing strategy, which involved short clips from an episode being dropped every day on Instagram in real time. Each season followed one primary character charting their own individual battles, ranging from hot button issues like Islamophobia, homophobia and date rape. Nothing was off limits.

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It was the groundbreaking third season of the show that really captured global interest, when a tale of two high school boys coming to terms with their sexuality transcended the boundaries of the tiny Scandinavian nation. It's also when bootlegged clips of the show — with fan-made subtitles — started doing the rounds in secret Google drive files. Eventually the fever pitch popularity spawned a number of international remakes from France, Italy to Spain and even an American version, which is now in its second season.

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Although the shows' edgy themes were familiar to savvy audiences, it was the real life-like treatment — all inclusive of the repetitive frustration and confusion that comes when nearing adulthood — that shaped the show's definitive voice.

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Ulrikke Falch's Vilde, a pivotal character in the original series, often provides comic relief. Like almost every young cast member of the show, Falch didn't have tons of on-screen acting experience prior to being cast. Yet, Falch's portrayal of Vilde's battles with bulimia, body image, and coming to terms with self-hate that she often projected on to her best friends, resonated with fans around the world.

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After four successful seasons, the series concluded in 2017. And while almost all of her co-stars have gone on to work on larger film and TV projects, Falch has taken on a more difficult task. Her Instagram currently speaks to the same struggles Vilde went through, only in a more provocative and confident way. Her range of bold and blatant posts grapple with everything from body positivity, mental health, and feminism, to self-hate.

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"Vilde is the personification of my insecurities. I struggled with eating disorders when I was younger and, again, what saved me and also my family — because my family... I think it's a family illness because it involves so many people, not just the one with the eating disorder," she tells me over the phone from Oslo.

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Unlike Vilde, who was adored by fans despite her often inappropriate interjections, Falch faces constant criticism for using her platform to be vocal. "I realized a lot of my ideas were considered provocative once the hate started pouring in," she said. "But i just couldn't see what was so wrong with my message of self-love, so I decided to talk more about it."

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Despite the hauntingly real and explicit way Skam handled every hot button subject, young teens in Norway continue to work through dated prejudices, or so Falch says. Now with one already published book, a documentary where she goes around high school campuses explaining the meaning of feminism to young teens, and an undying activist spirit, Falch is hoping to change that.

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PAPER: What're some of the most important parts of your platform?

Falch: I've been really open about mental health issues, I think. There's not a lot of discourse around it here in Norway. Despite all the discouraging responses I get, I think about that one person that might feel less alone because I shared my story; because they see that there is someone else struggling with the same issues. It kind of just went from there, talking about mental health, and then eventually I got really engaged in feminism. For me, the "radical idea" here is loving yourself unconditionally and unapologetically. When I realized that people thought that was provocative, it just prompted me to talk more openly and loudly about it, because I couldn't see the issue with it.

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Your character on Skam was someone who dealt with a lot of body, and self-image issues. Was it inspired by your real life in any way?

Of course! I usually say that the character reflects the most insecure part of me; Vilde is the personification of my insecurities. I struggled with eating disorders when I was younger. What saved me was literally having an open conversation about it with my family. I think it's the sort of illness that affects your whole family because it involves so many people, not just the one with the eating disorder. My dad and my twin sister struggled along with me. I saw their pain, I saw what my illness did to them, and eventually that's what saved me.

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My father and I became really close when we went to therapy. We also did something called 'family therapy,' where there were five different families in a room. It's then I realized how much of an impact my eating disorder had on the people surrounding me. I was like, 'Oh shit, this is not just my problem' My father is getting ill because of this, my father doesn't have a life. He can't work because he's scared that I will skip a meal.' So it's what I prompted me to be healthy again. I wanted to use that openness that we had in our family and bring it out on social media and inspire other people to talk more candidly about it.

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Were these issues something that you wanted to bring into your character, or did the the directors prompt you to do that?

When I auditioned for the role, Vilde's character was already said to have eating disorders and issues with her mother. I almost got goosebumps because that was exactly the same thing with me, so it was really just random. But that's how it happened.

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"Social media represents a picture of life that is really polished and unreal. I wanted to be the counterpart to that."

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Why did social media become such an important part of your work?

Because social media represents a picture of life that is really polished and unreal. I wanted to be the counterpart to that. I wanted to represent real life, real struggle, me as a person without any kind of filter; I wanted to communicate that I'm a whole person and I'm not just the pretty images with me in bikinis and white beaches.

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Did you experience a lot of bullying growing up?

Yeah, mainly because I didn't fit into the idea of how I should be feminine. I was loud, I did a lot of sports, I liked to fight. So that was the hardest part. I was constantly made to feel I wasn't a girl in the right way.

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How did you deal with that?

I reduced myself to having an eating disorder. That was about being small, "feminine" and vulnerable. I felt so little; I like to compare myself to a squirrel, a cute little squirrel, because that's the image I have of myself being really ill. Just helpless and really vulnerable. My eating disorder was kind of a reflection of the way femininity is perceived, actually.

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What is the conversation around these subjects usually like in Norway? Is it very open?

It wasn't as open three years ago, but it's always a development. I think in a way, it's going in the wrong direction because we have really trivialized anxiety to the point where people think it's kind of 'hip' to have a mental disorder. I think the conversation has turned totally the wrong way. Anxiety is a really serious disorder and people are kind of treating it so casually.

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What your thoughts are on the state of diversity in beauty right now? Do you think a lot of it is just marketing?

I think a lot of it is marketing, but having said that, it's also a positive way to utilize the counterculture, where the counterculture has become popular culture. Diversity is a part of what's popular right now, and I think that's a good thing.

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Do you think it's creating actual change, though?

That's a really difficult question because I don't think it's genuine. I don't think when a designer is selling T-shirts with feminist slogans on them, it's creating actual change but it sends out a signal that's important. So you could kind of criticize it for not being genuine, but still... I love that it's more popular.

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I also wanted to get your perspective on diversity in the beauty industry in Norway.

In Norway, it's kind of just white, thin girls with blonde hair and perfect bodies. That's the beauty ideal, it's really slim. I think America's more open-minded, the conversation's more active there. Here in Norway, we're so privileged that we don't care about diversity, or feminism.

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How do you define beauty?

Beauty to me is to be able to sit in a room and be myself, be everything I can and nothing at the same time. It's a feeling of being loved, that's beauty. Is that a bad answer?

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No! But why do you think it's difficult for people to grasp something so simple?

Because we're sold a totally different picture, that beauty is about how we look or how our hair is or how we dress. I want to redefine beauty to be a feeling, not a look.

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You also wrote a book that came out last year. Tell me about that!

So I wrote this book calledJenteloven, which in English translates to Girls' Law. We are two authors, and it addresses different forms of discrimination and harassment women face and how we can fight them. But while I've been really busy making a documentary, my friend is the one kind of spreading the word. She travels around in Norway to talk about feminism and how girls should treat themselves and how they should feel good about themselves.

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What has the response been like?

I think people are surprised, that they're not alone in their experience, and that they can relate to us in a way that's just being part of something bigger than yourself. So it's been really positive.

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What's this documentary you're working on?

It's me going to high schools for a month where I try to convince everyone to call themselves feminists. I try to educate them, because the one argument I usually get when I talk about feminism is that 'we are already equal.'

So the month that I'm there, I try to talk about why we're not really equal, how gender norms work, and make it difficult for us to express ourselves. It was tough because [in Norway] people are still kind of afraid of the word, "feminist." They still subscribe to outdated stereotypes that it's about growing hair under their arms or really angry women.

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How did the students react?

Well the boys hated me, they still hate me. It was really difficult, it felt like being bullied again because I came in there and wanted to preach about equal rights, and they were like, 'No, actually we don't care. I have other things in my life that's more important.'

In the end though I was able to convince maybe two-thirds of the school, so we have the last scene in the documentary, where we split up the exercise hall into two sections. The feminists went to the one side, and the other ones went to the other side. It's a community. We try to make a community with different rules about engaging in feminism.

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When does it come out?

It was actually going to have a premiere in this November, then I became really ill, so we had to delay it, so now it's coming out in August. And it's a series, so it's going to air on NRK, actually.

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Are you working on any TV shows or movies at all?

Eh, not right now. I'm not sure which way I want to do it — if it's writing a book, doing a documentary, or just posting pictures on Instagram, but I want to tell stories. There's so many ways for me to do that, so I'm really happy with where I am right now.

With a larger shift towards natural and vegan beauty, it's inevitable for celebrities to begin cleaning up their beauty routines too. However, there are some, like Shawn Mendes, who seem to be really pushing the agenda.

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When asked about his skincare routine, in a recent fan Q&A, the 20-year-old musician (who usually sports spotless skin), revealed he simply does not wash his face.

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"My skincare routine — I'm not lying when I tell you guys that I just don't wash my face! I meditate a lot," he said. "I think skin is very based off of how you're feeling."

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He also had some handy tips on how to finally get rid of that persistent acne. "You could rub dirt on your face but if you're happy, you won't break out. If you're unhappy or sad or stressed, that's when you break out the most. Just do everything that will make you happy," he advised. "So, honestly, do everything that will make you happier, I think."

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Does this mean we toss out our serums and spot treatments? Well, not yet. Mendes added that while he apparently does not wash his face, he does do a face mask "every five days or so" which makes a "little difference."

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Much like us, fans were a little amused; some were even heard mockingly saying, "Wow, I must be sad all the time." Twitter too, was filled with reactions that ranged from horror to jealousy to eye-rolls.

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True to its name, the Badass Mascara is designed to pump the lashes to the "blackest of black intensity." It additionally comes with an innovative three-sided brush for attaining a variety of effects and is created with a powerful formula that ensures your lashes survive the night.

Badass Mascara

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"Our ultimate mascara for over-the-top lashes, Badass Mascara is a powerhouse for volume, length and conditioning," the brand says in a statement. "The ultra-black, oil-in-water formula creates thick, lush, generously amplified lashes, while film-forming polymers help prevent smudging and flaking, and jojoba esters help nourish each and every hair."

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"It is femininity taken to the extreme, whether on the eyes, the lips, or for the ultimate in luxurious, gutsy glamour — both."

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Lip Spark, on the other hand, comes packed with "explosive, metallic sequin-saturated color" that mimics the look of loose glitter on the lips for an ultra glamorous shine. "Each lipstick glides on with lush smoothness, depositing an even coat of pigment and sparkle with every spike," the description reads.

CLASH

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The lipstick is offered in five different shades from glittering nudes to glossy reds. But for true Tom Ford extremity, the brand recommends wearing the mascara and lipstick together. "It is femininity taken to the extreme, whether on the eyes, the lips, or for the ultimate in luxurious, gutsy glamour — both," it states.

"I've always said, at the very beginning of my career, that all of my songs start out as country songs. Most of my songs are just me on my porch with my guitar," Shamir tells me. It makes sense that, to Shamir, along with many other country fans, country music is synonymous with a minimalist aesthetic, structure and sound. The modern resurgence of country-pop has confounded this vision with elements found in a wide span of genres; this is not to say that these elements are not valid, just that they swoop in and begin shifting perspectives. "It's really funny to me because when I first came out, when I was really young, way back when, it was weird for me to do country music. Now, everyone's embracing it," Shamir says, humored by the imposition.

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Shamir's new record, Be the Yee, Here Comes the Haw, is the antithesis of any suggestion of singularity. Despite being recorded minimally, the lyrics power past a four-track to paint a grand image of loss, love, defiance and acceptance. Strings are synthesized to hug and twang at the multi-talented artist's vocal chords, while percussive elements are paired-down to back echoes.

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"I really wanted to make a minimal-maximal record."

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The lines, "Your eyes say we don't have too long/ And we start to speak and you sit languidly," open up the first few chords of the album's second track, "Strong." This picture of longing is contrasted by the next movement of the piece, where these lines are repeated. Backing vocals enter to lift each note Shamir sings to some higher space, before the track ends in a gust of woah's and oh's, and a finale: "Yee haw!" For being only the second track on the record, "Strong," is unironically strong — and it's a vivid indication of the type of poeticism to come.

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"I guess there's two parts to the record," Shamir explains. "The first part is that I really wanted to make a minimal-maximal record. Each instrumental track is no more than four tracks and so I just really wanted to see how much I could get out of very little. The second half of that is the whole resurgence in popularity within country music and kind of join that, and loving that as a lover of country."

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Talk of jeans, humanism, and hollowed-yet-full chords follow on the next track, "Ultra," perhaps the most anthemic of Be the Yee, Here Comes the Haw. Each verse escalates the romanticism of the melodics, upping the stakes of the winding story with each riff. "I can't help that I'm dissociating!" Shamir belts out, nearly clipping a register that would seem to contain a song of its structure and genre. "Synchronize in real time," each syllable hits beautifully in the next verse, reflecting the aftermath of a chorus grand in both emotion and instrumentation.

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Despite feeling so large, so elevating, "Ultra" is a highlight of the record because of its instrumental ease. "Just the guitar in 'Ultra,' that song, like I said as far as the track composition, is just three tracks. All those sounds that you hear are just from my guitar," Shamir says of the ballad.

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It's hard to find the words to describe most songs on the album. Some harmonies, like those of the most classic country and folk records, are indescribable. The melodies soothe and sing their own praises, striking a balance between highs and lows, pairing oppositely at times to the lyrics. Shamir has created a level of intimacy beyond analysis.

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In addition to the record itself, I was curious about the process behind-the-scenes. A triumphant proclamation followed the April 19 drop of the new record in the form of a tweet from Shamir.

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Curious about the relation between creative output and community input, I wondered about the tweet and what starting a label was really like. "Well, I think it's only natural, right? I think for me, creating is such second nature that I don't get tired and fatigued. The more I create, the more I just want to create more and get inspired all over again. I think me working with all my artists on my label has only inspired me to create, myself, for my own stuff," Shamir states plainly. "I think that's how art should be, and I think that's how inspiration should be."

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This approach to plurality, despite the intimacy of Be the Yee, Here Comes the Haw, is certainly what allows Shamir to fly above and beyond on any individual sound. By viewing creating as a symbiotic process, genres are symbiotic, instrumentation and vocals are unopposed, and lyricism and theming go hand-in-hand, all in one collection of stories.

Pete Davidson has never given a bad interview in his goddamn life, but the SNL comic's appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon last night was one for the books. Highlights include Fallon trying to remain calm as Davidson blatantly admits that the Mortal Combat franchise is paying him to be there, and Davidson's spirited recollection of that time he was forced to pick up Kanye West's tab at Nobu. ("It was fine, but it's not like it's Applebee's.")

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The biggest reveal, though, is that Davidson is technically living in his mom's basement these days. Although things aren't as bleak as they sound! He says they purchased the house "together," even though "no one believes that." The bottom section house is his domain, while she dwells upstairs.

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"I have like a basement that's mine, that's like an apartment, so I live underneath her," Davidson elaborated. "So I'm getting a little arcade set up down there. Trying to make it mine. I'm re-doing my whole entire thing." He also revealed that close pal and fellow comedian John Mulaney has instructed him not to refer to the basement as a "man cave." Good advice.

Carly Rae Jepsen is nearly always in good spirits but even cowgirls get the blues.

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Her new tune off the forthcoming Emotion follow-up album Dedicated is titled "Julien" (sadly, it's not a Julien Baker collab/homage as far as I can tell) is an upbeat lonely classic '80s synth-funk bop with enough chimes, shimmers and echoey bass drum pumps to make Cyndi Lauper smile. Over inhaling and exhaling synths, Carly mourns her eponymous romance with "Julien" who she can't seem to get over now matter how much she dances or which new people she meets.

Only a collection of a few sparkly notes introduce Puerto Rican model-singer Alexis Jae's newest track, "Open Up My Heart," before she delivers an effortless rendition of the song's chorus. The rush that accompanies such a swift groove can only be described as , a sexy-smooth melt of all things disco-pop.

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It's only natural for a New York City-grown star like Jae to incorporate these sounds into her songs; the lasting synths are the sonic complements of her intoxicatingly glossy stare. Having entered the public consciousness through modeling, Jae is acutely aware of each movement she's made when starring in various campaigns. Her equally as cool command of her voice and tone is what dazzles listeners in her music.

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"I enjoy bridging that gap as an artist, merging sound and image to build a complete experience. It's what icons are made of."

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"Open Up My Heart" is evidently disco-inspired, but takes cues from the fun-loving, meta-pop generation that has become the trademark of subsets of Instagram and Twitter culture. The lyrics and structure are easy, but not in a way that's patronizing to the listener. "To unlock my heart, love is the key," is a metaphor that seems almost innate, but instead of feeling forced, it feels new and alive. One can almost hear the click of the pins in her heart's padlock being released, opening up the floodgates to a glittery portrait of rose-lined love.

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There's something so refreshing about hearing these sounds backed by such a fantastical attitude and genuine intonation, bar-by-bar and chorus-by-chorus. Jae's plain statement in the chorus, "I don't mind opening up my heart/ Be sure to put me back together once you take me apart," is transformative rather than expected. An inexplicable quality stitches together the young singer's voice and the post-modern production, a fabulous interpretation of disco-pop in a post-nu-disco landscape.

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PAPER caught up with Alexis Jae about her approach to creating "Open Up My Heart" and her upcoming projects. Listen to the PAPER premiere of her new single, below.

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I'm way more excited! If anything, I've become anxious about not releasing music. I've been taking my time to develop myself as an artist, so balancing that excitement with the anxiety requires patience, and that patience will pay off in the long run. I'm definitely excited to share this part of myself with the world.

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What was the process like creating "Open Up My Heart?"

"Open Up My Heart" was created similarly as the rest of the songs on my upcoming EP, Live Forever in the Hearts of Others. My producer, Marvy Ayy, worked closely with me to define the concept of the project and the vision moving forward. So together we decided that love, fantasy and glamor were iconic characteristics in the '80s that should be reinvented today. Marvy sent me the first draft of the beat for "Open Up My Heart" when I was boarding a flight to LA. It was actually titled "Beverly Hills." The rest is history!

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You've said in the past that disco inspires a lot of your music. What are some of the specific influences you've had for "Paradise" and your new track?

I was really into Rick James and early Madonna, it's all there. It's all I need: Glam.

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In what ways is modeling different for you from music, other than the obvious?

I feel like music demands a different type of energy than modeling. You really have to open yourself up in order to be and grow as an artist. Modeling demands a more physical energy, whereas music requires spiritual energy. I enjoy bridging that gap as an artist, merging sound and image to build a complete experience. It's what icons are made of.

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Besides this classic, funk-inspired message of love, what kinds of themes do you hope come through in your music?

FANTASY! I feel like fantasy is something that everyone needs, and that's what makes it real. Just because there are harsh realities doesn't mean you can't live your fantasy. I want my music to represent the possibility of living your fantasy.

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Are these singles going to be a part of a larger project?

Yes! The project is already finished and it's titled Live Forever in the Hearts of Others. It was all made by me and Marvy. Stay tuned for the release date.

How many times have you rewatched Homecoming? Beyoncé's Netflix documentary about her world-stopping 2018 Coachella performance is one of the most thrilling victory laps ever witnessed in pop culture. It has proven, yet again, that she's an all-time great — and even Michelle Obama is understandably in awe.

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Obama, who happens to also have a deal with Netflix, recorded a brief video congratulating her friend on the artistic triumph. "Girl, you have done it again," she says. "Constantly raising the bar for us all, and doing it flawlessly. I'd say I'm surprised, but I know who you are. I've seen it up close and personal... you make me so proud, and I love you."

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The former First Lady highlighted how Homecoming pays tribute to Black history and culture, while also looking to the future: "I love that it's both a celebration and a call to action. And I love that you're using this film to inspire the next generation of history makers and record breakers who'll run the world in the years ahead."

A few years ago, Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler were just a couple college kids in separate corners of the world, Zucker at Colorado College and Cutler at Amherst. Now with respective impressive come-ups behind them — Zucker self-released his music online until his "talk is overrated" ft. blackbear blew up in 2017, Cutler was a Soundcloud staple whose "Your Shirt," started charting on Spotify, racking up 62 million streams — the rookies find themselves poised to take on the pop machine.

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They're doing it together. And becoming a pop power duo along the way. Zucker and Cutler met serendipitously in 2016 before either had a hit or a label. They met again when both signed to Republic Records and, with their similar stories, found themselves natural collaborators. Their debut collab "better off" came last year. The twinkly, folk-pop lullaby proved both's vocal charms and writing chemistry: Zucker is an aching vocal lovechild of Ed Sheeran and Mumford and Sons, while Cutler's gentle voice is equal parts silk and sugar.

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The song was so well-received — earnesty like theirs is in somewhat rare supply these days — they've collaborated again by popular demand. "Jeremy and I stayed in a cabin in Connecticut last year where we wrote our song 'better off.' That trip inspired some of our best writing, so we decided to go back a year later" explains Cutler.

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The result is the anguished, rom-com soundtrack-ready: "you were good to me," which PAPER premieres the video for today: a nostalgic, sepia-toned, 35mm flashback reel of the "good times" of the ill-fated relationship Zucker and Cutler sing about. Like their first collab, it lands at the folk end of the pop spectrum. The pair reflect over airy piano, on a relationship where no one meant any harm but everyone got hurt. The song is affectingly wrought with the ambivalent agony of leaving someone when it's not the easy thing to do.

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"you were good to me" listens like a break-up fairytale (the part where someone cries in the rain), but tells the story of a relationship messier and more complex than the classic sound. According to Cutler, they enable this kind of authenticity in each other: "You Were Good To Me" is the first song we wrote up there and showcases, to me at least, how well we bring out the most honest artistry in each other."

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The video's frosty New England nostalgia makes sense when you hear Zucker describe the backdrop to their collaboration. "The cabin was basically a recording studio built in an old carriage house. The walls were lined with vintage guitars, keyboards, drums, and loads of random items that we ended up putting in our song. In between writing sessions, we would hike, watch movies, or just talk about life. The music really represents how we felt at that cabin: inspired, wholesome, and introspective."

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With any luck, "you were good to me" won't be our only window into their late-night conversations, which are apparently crucial to writing the clean and organic pop storytelling that's quickly defining them both. Zucker explains "When we come together, we tap into these visceral, deep true emotions and it becomes something else. These are the things that we can't do on our own."

Miami native Sabrina Claudio is part of a rising wave of R&B — a new generation of artists like Jorja Smith, Daniel Caesar and H.E.R. that are racking up millions of streams and expanding the genre's horizons. Like many of her contemporaries, Claudio got her start independently releasing tracks on Soundcloud, growing an audience through word of mouth before eventually getting picked up by Atlantic Records for her 2017 debut, About Time, and teaming up with artists like Khalid and 6LACK along the way.

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Claudio's latest album, No Rain, No Flowers, sees her really hone in on her sound. Pulling sultry melodies from lush instrumental grooves, Claudio is introverted but with a steady power behind her voice that keeps her front and center from start to finish. No Rain, No Flowers is a record that wraps you in the safety of its embrace, with Claudio's tender touch reassuring you along way.

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In chatting with the young 22-year-old Claudio, she gives off a very "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" vibe. Incredibly earnest and enthusiastic, her focus remains first and foremost on her music — preferring to strip away anything that might detract from it. Even with two albums already under her belt, she already has her eyes on finishing up the next one looking to push herself further than ever before.

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PAPER caught up with Sabrina Claudio ahead of her Coachella debut to talk about what to expect from her performance, festival essentials, and songwriting.

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I am so excited. I've actually never been to Coachella, so this will be my first Coachella attending and performing.

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What can we expect to see from your performance?

My performances are pretty music-based at all times, so I have a full band, a four piece band, and it's just me honestly. It's really focused on the live aspect, because my music has so many musical aspects to it. So when we perform we just want to get that out there. I don't have a big production, I don't have a lot of props, I don't have anything I'm bringing, because I don't want any distractions. People usually know what they're going to see when they come.

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Are you planning on any changing anything up since it's Coachella?

Yeah, nothing crazy. I have this fear of technical difficulties considering this is one of the biggest festivals. So anything that can prevent that, any kind of steps, is what I'm going for. Plus it's always been just that with me and it's always worked so it's like if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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Who are you most excited to see?

Honestly, I'm really excited to see Ariana Grande. She's like my top one. I'm really feeling her so I'm going to see her for sure. There's a bunch of others but she's like my top, top.

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So this is your first time at Coachella but you've been to festivals before, right?

I've done a bunch of festivals, I've never gone to festivals just to go. I grew up in Miami and the only festival that we had was Ultra, and it was kind of too crazy for me to go to that. I never went, but last year I did about seven, and I think I've done 10 festivals total and I've learned to love them. At first it was a little difficult for me because I don't do well with hundreds of thousands of people, but I've actually learned to love it. Even when the shows aren't amazing they're still a fun experience.

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What are some of you festival essentials?

I don't carry anything, but I definitely have to make sure that I'm always eating. I have a tendency of blacking out if I'm surrounded by a lot of people in the heat. So it's essential to make sure that I'm always filled with food... and water, obviously.

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A big part of Coachella is definitely the fashion, do you have any looks prepared for the weekend?

Well I definitely have my performance looks set out, and I feel like I'll have a few options for festival going. But I don't know what to expect. I'm just going to go as I normally dress for festivals and see what happens.

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I hear you're back in the studio again...

I've been writing in the studio for about six months. I've gone back to collaborating with a bunch of songwriters, and more producers, and it's been an incredible experience. I'm almost there at the finish line in terms of when I'm ready to release more music, but I'm in this really great headspace right now and I just really want to take it to the end.

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What is your songwriting process like?

It really varies depending on the day and who is in the room. Obviously, when I work with somebody new we just collaborate on our processes. But when it's just me, and when I'm in the room with a producer and I'm the only writer, it depends. Sometimes I go in the booth and freestyle to whatever we're creating. I'm also very involved in the production process. But once we're done creating that part I go in and I freestyle sometimes, and sometimes I'll just sit and write before I even know any melodies. Sometimes it's both at the same time.

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In what ways does this new work differ from your previous stuff?

I think inevitably it will always have some similarities to my past projects because vocally and melodically I tend to stay in the same realm. But because I've been collaborating with other songwriters, and other females, I have more stories to tell. They usually go in the booth and give out their ideas, so I incorporate their world into mine. That's probably the most different, and you'll be able to tell —even rhythmically and my melodies are different this time around.

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You mentioned that you were in a pretty positive place, but was there anything that really challenged you throughout this process?

For me, songwriting is a very personal thing and it takes a lot of my energy. I got really lucky this time around and I actually had great experiences with all of these writers. I think it was because I opened my mind a little bit and was like You know what, let me go into these sessions expecting the best, and it always ended up being that way. When I write I'm just a very introverted and private person, so it's hard for me to be able to sit there and express myself and anything that I'm feeling and just open myself up completely. With these songwriters that I have been working with and who have created some amazing songs with me, they've made me feel so comfortable to the point where all of the fear I had went out the window. They opened my eyes, they opened my mind, and helped me realize that being vulnerable is not a scary thing.

When Melissa Marie first heard Kesha's debut single "Tik Tok," she thought it was her own voice. The squeaky slur of "wake up in the morning feelin' like P Diddy," the trashy lyrics about brushing her teeth with Jack Daniels, the way Kesha moved between speaking and speak-singing like a hangover prevented her from giving more — it'd all become Melissa's signature as part of her three-girl Myspace band Millionaires. Only now that model was being blasted through Top 40 radio, and would eventually catapult Kesha to global pop star status.

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"I got messages from people in my high school saying, 'You're on the radio!' And I was like, 'That's fucking not us,'" Melissa says. "I remember being so pissed off. I thought it was myself singing, it was that close."

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In the context of 2009 Myspace, the biggest social media platform at the time, the Millionaires had become notorious. Melissa, sister Allison Greene and their close friend Dani Artaud were all internet-famous with hundreds of thousands of combined "friends" (this was before followers), and they joined forces to make an electro-pop trio that began as a joke, but became serious by demand. The earnest emo nerds, screamo misogynists, and leftover indie-rock snobs of Myspace all loved to hate the Millionaires, yet the girls' tracks consistently landed in Myspace Music's top charts. Constant criticism fueled epic numbers online, and so the Millionaires became an early product of the same system of polarizing popularity that fueled the careers of stars like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian.

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It was rumored that among the Millionaires' listeners was producer Dr. Luke, who is credited for helping develop Kesha's initial look and sound (and accused of abusing her throughout their professional partnership). "We worked with producers in the [music] industry, so we heard all the gossip," Melissa says, claiming that "Dr. Luke had admitted to someone that he stole our whole persona." It makes sense: mainstream radio of that era was still dominated by the likes of high-fashion auteur Lady Gaga and textbook hitmaker Britney Spears, but the party girl image — messy, low-brow, relatable — had yet to be tapped into. So if the Millionaires could independently cultivate a fanbase for their sex positive, drunken bops, imagine what someone could achieve with a major label's support.

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"That should've been us," Melissa says, "and they gave it to [Kesha]. Once I saw her doing our thing — and even Katy Perry was doing the same, just a cleaner version — it was like, Damn, why did they choose those other girls and not the Millionaires?Was it because we were scene and sorta goth-y? It was disappointing, definitely, but that made us try harder — it fueled our fire."

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The Millionaires started in late 2007 with a Mac desktop, Garageband, and plenty of Smirnoff Ice (they were all under 21). "We went to a Catholic high school [in California], and my mom had bought us the Mac for Christmas to use for school," Melissa says. "One day we all made a song randomly — drunk, wasted — just screaming and yelling at the computer to record on Garageband." That belligerent recording became "I Like Money," the first official Millionaires demo that they'd later upload to Myspace. Using pre-made Garageband beats, the debut effort knowingly lacked in production value, but the girls' lyrical wit made up for its DIY sound. The verses were biting ("High heels, makeup, fake eyelashes/ Look at you, you're so damn plastic"), and the hook was addictive ("Look over here, and let me see that body rock").

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"The lyrics were easy for us," Melissa says. "They came naturally. You didn't want to get in a fight with us because we were all really good with our words. We could've been wrong, but with all the hate, we were so quick to make someone feel stupid for talking shit."

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The Millionaires' early bedroom sessions continued with a lineup of demos that solidified their smart, raunchy approach to making hilarious electro-pop. "In My Bed" saw the trio demanding a boy hop in their bed: "I know you must be shy because I'm just so hot/ But if you will just try, I know you'll hit the spot." On "Hey Rich Boy," the Millionaires offered a sugar baby anthem before 'sugar baby' was a term: "You can tell he's drippin' dollars, so of course I have to holler." They made a track called "Hoe Down," packed with banjos and drags, but the release of "Alcohol" marked when the Millionaires really hit their stride. It became the band's mission statement, with a chorus that everyone on Myspace knew the words to: "Let's get fucked up! Gimme that Alcohol (A-L-C-O-H-O-L)."

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When the Millionaires uploaded these rough tracks to Myspace, they quickly caught fire, cultivating millions of streams. "No one realized that Myspace was such a great promotional tool at the time," Melissa says. "This was before people really caught on to social media being free publicity." The group almost immediately shifted from being a silly side project into a pursuit that felt like it could become something big. "It happened really fast," she says. "Because our first song did so well and it was so easy to make, we realized we were able to make a lot of songs. And when we realized people wanted us to perform, that's when we had to get a DJ."

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They enlisted the help of DJ Hyphy Crunk, who was a friend of Melissa's and a local Los Angeles promoter at the time. "He would let us into clubs, and he was one of the only DJs I knew," Melissa says, recounting their simple, fast solutions to seem more legit to fans. "Hyphy Crunk, spin that shit," became a recognizable sample across Millionaires' early music, and he'd spin their tracks at live shows. "All three of us [in the Millionaires] were classically trained ballet dancers, so that's how we clicked really well [on stage]. A lot of bands, and especially scene kids as you can imagine back then, were super shy but we were the opposite. We loved the stage, and we were drinkers and partiers, so it fit."

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Performing their songs live meant the Millionaires needed to rerecord everything they'd already created. "We weren't sound engineers," Melissa admits, so all their demos had been compressed without saving any stems. "We redid a bunch of songs because the recordings sounded so bad, and we only had the one tape. We had to, or else we couldn't perform them live. That's when we started taking it really seriously."

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Melissa's high school sweetheart and prom date was Miley Cyrus' older brother Trace. He happened to be a guitarist for the pop-punk band best known for its breakthrough hit "Shake It," Metro Station, which played an indirect role the Millionaires' success. Keyboardist Blake Healy's roommate, Mark Maxwell, was a burgeoning producer and eager to work closely on developing a music project. Having met Melissa through Metro Station, he remixed two of the Millionaires' early demos, and ended up completely transforming their discography.

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"When Blake took off with Metro Station, Mark had a feeling of being left out of the action," Melissa says, "and I think he saw an opportunity in us to achieve the same." The producer helped develop the Millionaires' sound into a much fuller fusion of wonky electro synths with radio-pop sensibility. This ultimately led to their first proper release, the five-track Bling Bling Bling! EP, released in 2007. The cover art featured all three girls in American Apparel bikini tops and wearing thick, charcoal eyeliner, surrounded by stacks of hundred dollar bills.

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Metro Station was then working with Crush Management, the team responsible for shaping the success of still-massive bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco. "We sought out legit management because we had this one lady who really fucked us over," Dani says. "[Crush] wanted to work with us, and they flew us out to NYC to record more music." With celebrities like Brendon Urie and Pete Wentz under their wing, Crush had the power and momentum to make Melissa, Allison and Dani superstars.

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Around this time, the band was invited to perform live on TRL's "On the Radar" — easily their biggest opportunity to date, and a chance to get their music legitimized outside of Myspace. "We randomly got an email [from TRL], and started freaking out," Melissa says. "They made us fly ourselves out, and my mom went into her savings to send all three of us. It was during our first week of tour; I remember we had to play two shows in LA, and then go to NYC three days later. We flew overnight, got to New York at 6 AM, and had to go straight to filming. I'd lost my voice."

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The girls decided to perform a track called "I Move It," which was their safest lyrically but still overflowing with profanities. "[MTV was] so upset about the song, because they give you one time to practice and we all cussed," Melissa laughs, remembering that producers threatened to cut the performance altogether if they didn't clean it up. "We had to change the lyrics, and we were so stressed," Dani says. "Because if you accidentally slip up, there's hell to pay." Somehow they all managed, and made their mainstream TV debut "looking trashy in tour clothes," with teased jet-black hair and bracelets stacked up their arms, all gifted by fans at different shows. "The minute we did TRL, I think that made [the band] seem really real to us and a lot of people," Dani says.

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It also opened up them to a whole new avenue of music-making; the Millionaires were tapped to create theme songs for MTV's hit shows A Double Shot at Love with the Ikki twins and Teen Cribs, and later invited to cover Chic's 1978 hit "Le Freak" for the MTV film Turn the Beat Around. Many of the the girls' existing tracks were also used for the network's shows, including "Alcohol" on Skins. Their quick, rebellious wit was perfect for reality TV's debauchery, and the lyrics immediate enough to have impact in only a few, short seconds of play.

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Building upon this organic momentum, their Just Got Paid, Let's Get LaidEP (off Decaydance Records), showed signs that the Millionaires could become America's next big girl group. They strategically included their biggest tracks, "Alcohol" and "I Like Money," and unveiled several new songs written after that first boozy but brilliant recording session. "Talk Shit" was an aggressive message to the haters, staking their ground with fists ready to fight: "Money, diamonds, gold and ice/ Yeah, talk shit you'll pay the price/ Shut up cunt, I'll cut your tongue/ Back down, bitch, you're fucking done." On "I Move It," the Millionaires continued carving out space as DGAF sex symbols, while the title track was a massive party bus banger that poked fun at the criticism they received online: "We live the life you wish, bitch don't say shit/ No talent, just lucky, but they still wanna fuck me."

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In their "Just Got Paid, Let's Get Laid" video, the Millionaires featured a girl dressed up as fellow Myspace scene queen Audrey Kitching, who'd previously insulted the bands' music online. Twirling her pastel pink hair with a septum piercing and matching moles, Kitching's look-alike said the Millionaires were "like totally ruining music." The real Kitching eventually addressed the mockery on Twitter: "I'm embarrassed for you guys," she wrote. "Getting '****** up'? Degrading to all girls" — a criticism that would erupt in backlash today. Ever ahead of their time, the Millionaires couldn't care less as they walked men on leashes, feeding them bowls of champagne like thirsty kittens and tossing cash at half-naked strippers in the video. "You think you'll get famous taking pictures for free? Think again, bitch, maybe you should do it like me," growled Dani on the track.

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Being an A-List Myspace group and working with Crush Management, the Millionaires became closely associated with all the emo bands dominating music at the time. They were the Paris, Nicky and Nicole of scene culture, and therefore joining Warped Tour seemed unavoidable to keep the band's momentum going. Consistent with punk's historic misogyny, the summer-long festival was always stacked with male musicians, putting the Millionaires in front of rockist crowds that vocally — and sometimes violently — hated their music.

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They shared a tour bus with a group called Brokencyde, which incorporated hip-hop beats with screamo vocals and was similarly loathed by the Warped Tour audience for the ways they modernized punk music. On the first day of tour, Melissa says someone threw an entire water bottle of cum on Brokencyde's brand new stage backdrop, completely destroying it. "I remember joking that Target should sponsor us and put their logo on our bus, so people could throw stuff at that instead," she says. "No one else would tour with us, it was so dangerous. Jeffree [Star] had his own bus for that reason too, because he didn't trust anybody. It was like lunchtime in high school: [the Millionaires], Brokencyde and Jeffree all sitting at a table. It got to a point where no one would talk to us."

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"Looking back now, what we were doing was really feminist and badass."

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Throughout the summer, the Millionaires were forced to move stages several times because the bands before them would rile up the audience by openly insulting the trio. "We were always sandwiched between the two hardest, heavy metal bands because of the layouts of the stages," Melissa says. "That was really dangerous cause people in the audience would throw stuff." Dani remembers being hit in the head with shoes, water bottles and full bags of fruit; Melissa says she was once sexually violated. "People couldn't handle us, especially men," Dani says. "Our sets would infuriate them." As the Millionaires rapped about hooking up and downing shots, they did full choreography, sometimes simulating sex acts with each other. It was a completely different vibe and message from the ferocious, guitar-driven bands that they performed alongside.

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At one Tennessee Warped Tour date, the Millionaires were booked to perform with A Day To Remember, a band whose sound was critically referred to as "pop-mosh." The girls begged not to do it ("They're going to eat us alive"), but were forced into playing the show by management. As expected, the response to their music was riotous: dollar bills were tossed about as if they were strippers, girlfriends in the crowd didn't like that their boyfriends were watching ("that was always a big issue for us"), and insults were freely flung at the stage. "They had to stop our set because it was getting so crazy," Dani says. "Even the sound guy was talking shit to us. I remember yelling at this guy, who was calling us 'sluts.' It was really intense, and we were always just trying to have fun and make fun songs. Looking back now, what we were doing was really feminist and badass."

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The musical landscape at the time was overwhelmingly patriarchal, with all-male (and usually all-white) bands taking up the most space: All Time Low, Forever the Sickest Kids, We The Kings, The Maine, Cartel, Mayday Parade, The Cab, Cute Is What We Aim For, Boys Like Girls... the list is endless, meaning the majority of lyrics were penned through a male gaze: melodramatic love songs written about women, by men. While A Day To Remember, for example, was singing earnestly about romance and, in many cases, monogamy ("I just feel complete when you're by my side"), the Millionaires were destroying the standard by independently owning their sexuality, batting men around like toys, and setting it all to trashy club beats: "In the Millionaire world shit's turned around/ It's the boys that drop their knees to the ground," they declare on "Just Got Paid, Let's Get Laid" — a much-needed role reversal in the age of emo masculinity.

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When the Millionaires got offered to sign to UK record label B-Unique in 2009, it was both the height of the band's career and the final nail in its coffin. They were slated to release a debut, full-length studio album, complete with new material that would push them further into the world of more accessible dance-pop. In a feature on The Guardian's "New Band of the Week," the UK publication profiled the Millionaires and asked the question, "Trash-pop or pop that's trash?" The hate the group experienced on and offline was reaching new, unbearable extremes — especially for Dani, who remembers battling an ongoing cocktail of depression, mental breakdowns and frequent panic attacks.

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"It was hard on me in particular," Dani says. "I didn't realize at the time how much it was affecting me. I didn't know what the term 'empath' was, but now I do and I realize I'm totally one. Negative energies affect me in a crazy way, so it was really difficult being on stage." She also didn't want to stay in the UK, arguing that the people who booked the group's shows consistently put them in "weird situations where the audience wasn't receptive. They didn't know exactly where to put us or what to do with us."

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So Dani decided to quit the band for good and return to the US. "It was so hard being away from home," she admits. This, however, meant the Millionaires lost their UK record deal and had to scrap their full-length project as the original trio. "I was happy to come back to the US, because things were not going well [overseas]," Dani says. "We were all trying to make it work, but I was like, I can't go back on stage. It was too much for me; I was relieved to not go back, but at the same time it was sad. There were a lot of fun times, and [Melissa and Allison] were like sisters to me. It took a while to come to terms with everything, but I think it was best for me at the time."

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Shortly after Dani's announcement in 2010, Melissa and Allison released their Cash Only EP as the Millionaires, which featured some of the group's strongest, most sexual work to date. It offered five new songs, many of which the girls recorded in New York City while they were still together. All three sang more than ever on the project, attempting to compete with their peers in a post-Kesha pop landscape.

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"Middle finger in the air if you're pussy's tight," Melissa and Allison demanded on track one, "Party Like a Millionaire" — the first Millionaires track without Dani's involvement. On "Prom Dress," recorded before her departure, the girls took on the challenge of writing a high school party bop, complete with cheerleader cries and an explosive power-pop chorus: "Get me off like a prom dress/ I can feel you deep inside," they sang in unison. "Take Your Shirt Off" continued in this playfully erotic vein, while "Microphone" was their attempt at reclaiming the groupie narrative: "After the show/ No one will ever know/ I want to touch your microphone."

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Nothing was as promising as "Stay the Night," a single that had just enough sex appeal to feel like they weren't selling out, while still leaning into a safer, more radio-friendly lane. With retro guitar-pop production, the Millionaires' lyrics were PG-13, if not intentionally innocent: "Let's get naughty, cause I want you to stay the night," they sang on the chorus — a bright, bubbly climax that could've easily passed the standards of TRL's buttoned-up producers a few years prior. In the music video, the girls choose three lovers from a house full of men, handing the chosen ones a message in a bottle that read, "Stay the night with me."

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"I love 'Stay the Night,'" Melissa says. "That one was kind of cleaner for us, but we really wanted to go that route. We recorded it in Europe, and it was going to do really well there."

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The scrapped full-length album from Melissa, Allison and Dani meant losing a sea of impeccable, unreleased tracks that'd been circulating online. "Up in My Bubble" was a perfectly bitchy bop, featuring vocals by hitmaker Sarah Hudson (of Ultraviolet Sound); "Painted Whore" took shots at girls in too much makeup ("put more on you fuckin' clown"); Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" got sampled on "The One" — a tender track about true love and dependency, much like another slept-on standout, "Martinis and Mixed Feelings." While they never saw a proper release, all these songs exist today as lo-fi rips on YouTube and Soundcloud pages curated by dedicated fans who recognize the Millionaires as internet relics demanding preservation.

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Once Dani left, Melissa says she and Allison were able to focus more on their potential as sisters, and continued forward with the Millionaires, now a two-person band. "We just decided to move on," she says, admittedly writing a Dani takedown called "Not Everyone Is a Millionaire," and then shelving it ("It was too mean.") The pair worked hard to keep up with music trends in order to be taken seriously. "The 'Kesha thing' was so popular, and we felt we could still compete with that as a duo. We were trying to find our own way in, and started to pull from our Asian [heritage]. Still to this day, the only [Asian-American] group that ever made it to Billboard was Far East Movement [of 'Like a G6' fame]."

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Their 2012 single, "Drinks On Me," attempted to build upon the success of "Alcohol" by adding trendy, EDM motifs and sounds to their original party animal formula: "Give me that Andre/ 4 Loko erday / Give me that UV/ Cheap alcohol, please." This led to Melissa and Allison's debut mixtape Your Girl Does Party the same year — a 16-track effort stacked with cameos from hip-hop artists including Kreayshawn,Trina and Shanell — as well as their official full-length album, Tonight(produced by Khris Lorenz), in 2013.

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While their tipsy, carefree attitude was disruptive in 2007, it'd become commonplace five years later. Between "Crazy Kids" and "C'Mon," any song off Kesha's Warrior could've easily been a Millionaires track; "Bass Down Low," DEV's The Cataracts-assisted hit sounded like a major label version of anything off Just Got Paid, Let's Get Laid. The Guardian had previously referred to the Millionaires as "Kesha to the max," when at least chronologically, it was the other way around.

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Meanwhile, Dani began slowly stepping back into music through a collaborative project with Asia Whiteacre, who's now signed to Warner Chappell and notably co-wrote Hailee Steinfeld's Zedd-produced smash "Starving." Dani and Asia's indie band, Mr. Downstairs, was starkly different from the Millionaires, with completely sung-through, self-serious songs, more personal subject matter and guitar-led, bedroom-pop production. The duo acquired a small but engaged following and created a few music videos to cultish acclaim. They even dropped a 2012 EP called Superhero Heart, but the timing wasn't right for them to keep things going.

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"I didn't have the resources," Dani says. "At the time, I was moving out on my own. We were paying for a practice space, but neither of us could afford it. We didn't have a manager anymore, so I was like, Shit, I don't know what to do."

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She adds, "People still ask me, 'What ever happened to Mr. Downstairs?'" But all that is in the past, as now she's focused on an entirely new project she created with a clear head, fresh sound and newfound independence. SnowBlood is Dani's first solo effort, which she's been quietly developing for years in California. She released her self-titled album as SnowBlood in 2017, and dropped a spacey, electro-pop cover of Bananarama's "Venus" last year. This summer, she'll be going on tour in support of Mystery Skulls — her first time ever performing a full set alone. "Somebody the other day was sending me videos of Millionaires on Warped Tour," Dani says, "And that was literally 10 years ago. So 10 years later, I'm finally playing as a solo artist. I'm so stoked."

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Capitalizing on her understanding of the internet, Melissa — now based in Arizona — has become something of a social media expert in the cannabis industry and is working on her own solo music. "I know what works and I know what sells," she says. "Even if don't know what the product is, I know how to sell it. I already know how to sell a band, because [the Millionaires] always toured with excellent musicians. That's where a lot of the hate came from — the fact that were were screaming at computers, and still able to be successful."

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She and Allison have continued to work together, starring briefly on the Oxygen network's unscripted Bad Girls Club and making appearances at nostalgia-fueled emo-themed parties. Melissa's been married (and divorced), while Allison is settling into life as a newlywed in Las Vegas with her partner of 10 years. Their lives have slowed down, but their legacies live on: "Still to this day, if I go into a Hot Topic or a grocery store, people will still see me as a Millionaire," Melissa says — a testament to the cultural impact of a band whose star shined bright, despite never reaching supernova.

800-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral fell amidst large and uncontrollable flames, the entire world mourned. No one could believe that one of the most famous sites in the world would be in jeopardy of being burned to ashes on an otherwise regular Tuesday afternoon. We weren't sure if the descriptions of Notre Dame would now be confined to those of Victor Hugo, Sigmund Freud, or our personal and collective memories. What would happen to the artwork, the artifacts, or the iconic stained glass rose window? Would Paris, still reeling from the 2015 terror attacks that killed 130 people — the deadliest since World War II — be the same again?

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Miraculously, Parisian firefighters saved many of the prized artifacts artworks and relics housed in the church, including what some believe to be the
Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus — and they only had 66 minutes to do so. But nevertheless, Notre Dame needed to be restored as soon as possible. Approximately thirteen million people a year visit Notre Dame, and therefore its damage is both a cultural and financial blow to French tourism. In less than 72 hours, France's three richest families, including the Pinaults, the Arnaults and the Bettencourt Meyers pledged $650 million for its restoration.

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This goodwill of international outpouring would have been astounding, if the news had not been embittered by the fact that three historically Black churches were burned in a southern Louisiana parish in a suspected hate crime over a 10 day period in March, to which initially very little mainstream media attention was paid. The overlap in burning churches—one grown out of racial hatred and the other an accident — and the quick attention and giving to the latter reopened a deeply entrenched colonial wound, reminding us once again the world is less sympathetic to Black people and our institutions.

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Yes, Notre Dame is a world famous site and it generates millions for France. No, millions of people do not travel to Opelousas in St. Landry Parish to snap selfies and attend the services at Greater Union Baptist, St. Mary Baptist, and Mount Pleasant. But these churches are still sacred. Even as donations pour in to Notre Dame, the French government body created a fundraising campaign to accrue more money for its restoration. According to Krupali Krusche, Associate Dean at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture and expert on historical preservation, the nearly $800 million from donations would provide for a "good" preservation while an expert one could potentially demand a billion dollars.

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Just yesterday, April 17, the
New York Post reported that the pledges from companies such as Apple and magnates from L'Oreal, Chanel, and Dior, alongside Catholics and those around the world have led to the amount of money rising to $995 million. Why then does the French government still have their fundraising campaign live? France is one of the world's largest economies with a nominal GDP of over 2.5 trillion dollars. The Vatican, which bankers estimate to be worth somewhere between 10 to 15 billion dollars, also agreed to help with the efforts.

Online, many pointed out that France received compensation for the Haitian revolution: in order for Haiti, a former French colony, to maintain its independence and freedom from slavery, its people had to pay France what would be worth
$21 billion back in 1825. No standing French president has opened up the possibility to repay Haiti for this injustice. While France remains wealthy, Haiti remains the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

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The three historically Black churches that burned in Louisiana (another formerly French territory) were almost eclipsed by the news of Notre Dame. President Trump gave his condolences to Macron and offered help to restore Notre Dame yet has not made one public announcement about the hate crimes brewing in Opelousas. Given that he rose to power by capitalizing on the fears and racial animus of white Americans, his silence is unsurprising, but the optics are still damning and painful.

President Macron also hasn't given any condolences to the historic churches that burned in Louisiana. Like Notre Dame, those three churches were also sacred places full of collective memory. Much of their history was lost, including a sixty-year-old Bible and "handwritten sermons, financial records, and documents" that are well over 100 years old. Much African American history has been passed down from generation to generation through oral histories and storytelling; any documentation of such a vulnerable yet surviving people of our society is important to maintain. Right there in Opelousas, those archives have been scorched — a void in our historical memory is now in its place.

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Fortunately, donations of well over a million dollars have been reached for the historic Black churches. Many outlets have reported that the Notre Dame Cathedral burning inspired the spike in fundraising. However, these church burnings happened several days prior to Notre Dame, the last one on April 4. France was able to receive close to a billion within three days. St. Landry Parish received a .001% of that in two weeks. The disparity between who and what gets the most sympathy, media attention, and charitable giving is glaring.

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Compounded with the lack of parallels between how one religious site takes precedence over another when its very existence is in jeopardy, the quickness with which a billion dollars can be raised sheds light on other issues: world hunger, insurmountable student loan debt, homelessness, food deserts. Currently in France, members of the Yellow Vest Movement are protesting against rising social and economic inequality. No one can tell any person who or where to spend their money, but the pattern of prioritizing Western art and architecture in predominantly white spaces with capital and sympathy is consistent.

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Though the three Black churches in Louisiana are nowhere near as large as Notre Dame and therefore won't demand as much money for its restorative processes, the immediate worldwide response to support Notre Dame cathedral from laymen to heads of state, was like a roar against a whisper of the Louisiana church burnings. The cumulative benevolence carries a dark side, that Black history in public landscapes can be destroyed and close to forgotten. There needs to be a constant awareness of the racial bias towards who and what deserves our time, energy, and mourning and why these elements maintain a hierarchy in which white people and their institutions remain at top of the caste system.

A rockist I had brunch with this weekend in Palm Springs took a sip of his double Jameson — arms crossed — and declared, "The year Coachella died is the year Paris Hilton first attended the festival."

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The hotel heiress, who's an icon of unapologetic materialism, certainly embodies the larger-than-life, branded experience that is Coachella today. But I'd argue that she, along with the hundreds of A-listers who now annually descend on Indio, California, has helped transform the festival into a modern destination that breathes life into a struggling industry.

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A music festival of this scale is nearly impossible without all the corporate sponsorships, the media frenzy, the aspirational parties, and selfies by the likes of Ms. Hilton. They're what make it manageable for hundreds of global artists spanning genres, from reggaeton to K-pop, to convene for three days in the desert. While it's not romantic, this is what allows fans to still indulge in the romance of music.

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So if weekend one was any indicator of the state of Coachella in 2019, the decades-old fest is more alive than ever, putting music first with support from all the celebrity spectacle. Below are five acts that destroyed the rockist's cynicism with their weekend one sets.

BLACKPINK

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After shattering a YouTube record with their "Kill This Love" music video, BLACKPINK continued to break records during Coachella 2019 as the first K-Pop girl group to perform at the festival. Jennie Kim, one fourth of the band, also performed her track "Solo," casually locking in her title as the first solo K-Pop artist to descend on the Cali fest. With all this hype, BLACKPINK inevitably attracted a massive crowd, and delivered spot on choreo to relentless bangers like "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" and "Boombayah."

J Balvin

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Colombian superstar J Balvin returned this year to Coachella after performing alongside Beyoncé during her iconic headlining set in 2018. With technicolor leopard-printed hair and a full stage created in collaboration with arts collective FriendsWithYou, the golden hour performance was a surreal, playful celebration of Reggaeton — and his fans loved every minute. Balvin brought out Rosalía and Sean Paul to perform, underlining the biggest year for Latin music at Coachella (S/O Bad Bunny).

Christine & the Queens

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Next to some of her peers' massive sets, Christine & the Queens' stage was unassuming, which allowed her raw talent to shine alongside a troupe of modern dancers. "This is Chris," the French singer said, introducing a character that delivered a masculine, sexually charged performance against relentless smoke machines and dramatic fireworks. From "Comme Si" to "Doesn't Matter," Chris' songs are emotional and gleaming, and her interpretation of the tracks at Coachella — physical and earnest — proved she's one of contemporary pop's most arousing storytellers.

Gesaffelstein

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From hitmaker Zedd to queer cult icon SOPHIE, electronic music had a major presence at Coachella 2019, but few acts managed to make as big of an impact as Gesaffelstein. The French producer, who wore a Tron-looking metal bodysuit to conceal his face, opened with his new Pharrell collaboration, "Blast Off," before breaking into a techno lineup that seemed to fill every inch of the Indio, California desert. The sounds were massive and monumental — especially those from 2013's Aleph — like alien machinery descending on (and destroying) Planet Earth.

Janelle Monáe

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Now 10 years into her career, it's sometimes easy to forget Janelle Monáe's robust musical theater education. But the queer performer's Coachella set, which deserved to have a headlining slot, showcased every facet of her unmatched talent: the vocals, the dancing, the vision, the passion. Monáe delivered on all the fan favorites, including her Duran Lantink-designed vagina pants, and dropped in a few surprise guests (Lizzo, Tierra Whack). The finale song, "Tightrope" off 2010's The ArchAndroid, was stretched out for nearly 10 minutes with multiple endings and epic, powerhouse belts.

Kylie Jenner knows we've all wondered out loud who her plastic surgeon is. She just doesn't care. Once one of the more unassuming members of America's most famous family, these days her arched eyebrows and permanently pouted lips — sculpted and painted according to the impossible ratios of beauty YouTube and augmented reality apps — transfix hundreds of millions of eager fans and are ubiquitous on every feed. The 21-year-old makeup mogul says her dramatic transformation (from private teenager to public businesswoman, from demure girl-next-door to bombshell) was a conscious one, and more considered than you might assume. She's happy to talk about it.

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"People think I fully went under the knife and completely reconstructed my face, which is completely false," she explains to me over the phone, casually and with little prompting. "I'm terrified! I would never. They don't understand what good hair and makeup and, like, fillers, can really do." I'm eager to indulge in the fantasy that anyone can look like Kylie Jenner if they just watch enough tutorials about crease application, and tell her as much. She gently interrupts. "I mean, no," she says with a conspiratorial laugh. "It's fillers. I'm not denying that."

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On Instagram, where she reigns supreme, Jenner comes across as coy. Her captions are minimal, her grid curated, her selfies serious. In conversation, though, she's surprisingly relaxed and generous and upfront. A cool girl with fillers in her face who is down for whatever. She's genuinely excited to discuss her formerly secret daughter Stormi, and says young motherhood has changed life entirely for the better. "It's genuinely what I wanted... to be a young mom," she says. "I thought, This I what I want to do, and if people accept it or don't accept it then I'm okay with every outcome."

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Two days before our interview, she recalls, the 11-month-old took her first steps — with father Travis Scott present. Jenner gushes about him, too. He's a great dad, a "big kid," a fantastic partner. To put rumors to rest, they aren't married yet, or even engaged. Don't expect her to keep something like that a secret. When it happens, and she seems certain it will soon, "I'll let everybody know." With Kylie, you can usually expect fanfare. A few weeks after we speak, she throws an overtly aesthetic Astroworld-themed birthday celebration for Stormi, involving elaborate Instagrammable neon photo backdrops and custom merch in pop up stalls. Guests enter through the mouth of a giant balloon in the shape of her daughter's face. They eat fries from pink cartons covered in Louis Vuitton-Stormi monograms. DJ Khaled, in attendance, gifts one-year-old Stormi her very first Chanel bag.

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"What I'm trying to say is I did have a platform, but none of my money is inherited."

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Now that we've got the plastic surgery slash secret pregnancy talk out of the way, what Jenner really wants to discuss, with the authority of the eldest girl at the slumber party, is makeup. Its mysterious power. Makeup has made her unfathomably wealthy, and has given her purpose and identity outside of the Keeping Up With the Kardashians sphere. She's in awe of the famous makeup artists she is privileged to regularly work with and laments the fact she'll never be as good as they are, exuding way more modesty than is necessary — watch any of her "getting ready" tutorials and feel something at least proximate to awe. Even before it became her business, she explains, lipstick was her almost singular hobby, an "obsession" she didn't necessarily intend to monetize at first. Of the now-iconic lip kits that started it all, Jenner says she never did any consumer research, "wasn't educated on what the beauty business really was," and never even stopped to observe what the big brands were putting in drugstores. She simply "followed her heart" and invented the exact product she wanted to buy.

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"I just knew for myself as a customer, like, why am I buying a lip liner and a different lipstick? I wanted it the same color, I wanted it to be easy," she recalls. "And I really spent every last dime that I had starting it, not even knowing if it would be successful."

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In 2018, when Forbes predicted Jenner would be crowned America's youngest self-made billionaire within a year, the Internet understandably bristled. But while Jenner definitely exhibits the blithe financial attitude her detractors would expect ("I don't define myself by how much I have. I honestly don't wake up even thinking about it") she is able to acknowledge how certain Kardashian-related privileges gave Kylie Cosmetics an edge other fledgling beauty brands would kill for. "I had such a huge platform, I had so many followers already and I had so many people watching me," she admits. Still, she's eager to assert that "the self-made thing is true." Her parents "cut her off at the age of 15" and told her to start making her own way, and Jenner says that since then she hasn't received a single cent.

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"My parents told me I needed to make my own money, it's time to learn how to save and spend your own money, stuff like that," she explains, taking her time to think through the statement. "What I'm trying to say is I did have a platform, but none of my money is inherited."

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"Makeup is something that makes me feel empowered, makes me feel good, and I think it's such a positive thing."

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Jenner has been trying to curb her social media use, lately. Her screen time has "been going down 20 percent" each week, according to an app on her phone. But she also knows that social media is her "advertisement, the way I show my products." She doesn't feel guilty about exposing her young followers to a filtered vision of beauty that apparently requires millions, close to billions, of dollars to achieve; isn't losing sleep over the occasional piece of diet pill sponcon. Just hopes fans know that she's "trying to set a good example." The pursuit of prettiness has enriched her life, and she believes it can help others, too. When a woman's reflection matches the mental image she holds of herself, Jenner's transfixing, selfie-laden success story seems to imply, she is free to go forth and conquer.

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"Makeup is something that makes me feel empowered, makes me feel good, and I think it's such a positive thing," she says, with an earnestness that's nothing if not compelling. "There's no harm in playing around with it and feeling good about yourself." Maybe the fillers are optional, after all.